Getting Back Into Doctor Who

I watched season 1 of the current series way back when it first aired on Sci-Fi in 2006. I really enjoyed it, but for whatever reason that I can't think of right now, that's where I stopped.

Now Doctor Who is everywhere. My brother and his wife started watching it last year on Netflix and they quickly grew into huge fans. Their wedding cake even had a TARDIS topper with the two of them poking their heads out of the door.

After hearing them go on and on about it for so long I decided to give it another go. My sister-in-law is really excited about me starting it. In exchange I'm trying to get her into Star Trek. She loved the last 2 movies so I was going to start her with some of the earlier movies with TOS cast.

Anywho, I've watched through episode 6 and I'm loving it all over again. I originally thought that Rose was such a great character and she still is. The episodes are just fun. I've watched so many shows recently that are just depressing and filled with assholes (Breaking Bad, House of Cards, Game of Thrones), I'm happy to watch an adventure show with such a positive character.

With the ease of watching it on Netflix I should be able to watch it all the way through this time.

See the RTD seasons, and then maybe start venturing into Old Who to get a taste. I say this, because those 4 and a half years are rather closely related, story-wise.

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What is RTD?

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Russel T. Davies, the producer/Showrunner/Head Writer who brought Doctor Who back to us. He ran the first 5 years, through Christopher Eccelston's 1 Season and David Tennant's 3 (Plus the Specials year). So, the first 4 Series and the Specials.

then, with Series/Season 5, Stephen Moffat took over and Matt Smith took over as The Current Doctor (Series/Season 7 recently ended, and then there is an Anniversary Special on November 23, and the Christmas Special. Series/Season 8 starts around Late September 2014

Russel T. Davies, the producer/Showrunner/Head Writer who brought Doctor Who back to us. He ran the first 5 years, through Christopher Eccelston's 1 Season and David Tennant's 3 (Plus the Specials year). So, the first 4 Series and the Specials.

then, with Series/Season 5, Stephen Moffat took over and Matt Smith took over as The Current Doctor (Series/Season 7 recently ended, and then there is an Anniversary Special on November 23, and the Christmas Special. Series/Season 8 starts around Late September 2014

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Ah, gotcha.

I was going to check out some of the older stuff. I think there's some of it on Netflix, but not everything. If you guys have any suggestions, I'm open to them.

From what I've seen online, it seems like most of the classic Doctor Who available for download is generally appropriately weighted towards some of the more well-regarded stories from the series: "The Aztecs," "The Tomb of the Cybermen," "Carnival of Monsters," "Pyramids of Mars," "The Caves of Androzani," etc.

I'm quite fond of the Key to Time arc. That's the story arc that first got me into the show. I love the banter between Tom Baker & Mary Tamm.

How much of classic Doctor Who is serialized? Can I just jump in anywhere?

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Every Story is Serialized, though each story is fairly independent (From Tom Baker forward, most are 4 episodes of 25 minutes each, a few 6 episode stories). Prior to Tom Baker, most stories are 6 or more episodes, with some that are shorter.

Most stories are are independent. The Key to Time Series is 6 individual stories, but, all have a Quest running through them (Ribos Operation, Pirate Planet, Stones of Blood, Androids of Tara, The Power of Kroll, The Armegeddon Factor) . The E-Space Trilogy, is basically only connected in the fact they are in a different universe (Full Circle, State of Decay, Warrior's Gate) and then the end of Tom Baker's Run/beginning of Peter Davison's all involve The Master, and kind of lead into other (Keeper of Trakken, Logopolis, Castrovalva). For the most part, though, yea, you can pretty much jump in anywhere and watch in whatever order (Though I like to go through all the stories in order by Doctor, as the Companions provide a bit of a story continuity)

The 1st and 2nd Doctors have quite a few missing episodes, are in black and white and have a slower pace to them. So, I think for a NuWho fan, it's probably better to start there (rather than all the way back to the beginning, and then catch those episodes of 1st and 2nd Doctor later)

When it comes to classic Who, just watch any story that tickles your fancy, no matter the order. That's what I did when I first became a fan during McCoys run. With the very odd exception, there's no real ongoing story being very episodic.

Of course you do lose some of ompf when watching a Doctor for the first time and it's his regeneration story. :P

Just jump in: the original series is serials (4/6/occasionally 10 episodes) but there's rarely interconnection between stories (and ifi it is, it's stuff you'll appreciate later, as the events of the last story have an effect on the main characters).
But basically, just jump in and watch. Avoid the first two Doctors unless you're OK with stuff being in black and white. The fourth Doctor is a good starting spot as few serials are more than four episodes long (ie, 100 mins)... oh, and Tom is a great Doctor.
But if you like the Doctor as an odd hero, you'll probably like every version of him. (And then argue about why you prefer some of him to others).

You can get a flavour of what certainly 3 (maybe 4) out of the first 5 Docotrs wer elike by wathcing the 20th Anniversary speical "The Five Doctors". The Fourth Docotr Tom Baker decided against appearing it (he had left the show around a year or so earlier) He did appear breifly using footgae from the episode that was never completed due to industrial action "Shada". And the First Docotr was potrayed by a different actor due the orignal actor having passed away.

If I made any errors I'm sure those who knowledge of Dr. Who is greater than mine will correct me.

But I know t was some years agoi and it was during Tennant's run as the Tenth Doctor the Doctor Who Mag ran a poll of top episode and the top episode was "The Caves of Androzani" Starrting Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor, with Tom Baker's "Genesis of the Daleks" coming in second. I think the top ranked episode from the current era was "Blink"

Yeah, most of the stories are fairly self-contained. Back in the 1960s, there would occasionally be a little bit of overlap with the end of one story slightly bleeding into the beginning of the next. But that would be more like a teaser than anything else. You didn't really need to see the preceeding story or the following story to understand what happened in this story.

There's a bit of an exception to that in Tom Baker's 1st season. Between "The Ark in Space" & "Revenge of the Cybermen," the Doctor, Sarah Jane, & Harry briefly get separated from the TARDIS. So if you're not familiar with that story arc, you might wonder what the deal is with the trans-mat & the time ring and how the Doctor & co. are getting from place to place without the TARDIS.

There's also a little bit of a tie-in between "Frontier in Space" & "Planet of the Daleks." (Which is why the DVDs are packaged together in a Dalek War box set.)

Yep, at least in the UK. Someone in the US (or Aussie land) would have to speak up about elsewhere.
But pretty much accessible by ordering online (as of last Monday every complete story is now out on Region 2 DVD. A few episodes from incomplete stories are due for release in the next few months)

Yeah, most of the stories are fairly self-contained. Back in the 1960s, there would occasionally be a little bit of overlap with the end of one story slightly bleeding into the beginning of the next. But that would be more like a teaser than anything else. You didn't really need to see the preceeding story or the following story to understand what happened in this story.

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From the few I've seen like that it was a device similiar to what "Quantum Leap" would use a few decades later. Where you see a snippet of what's coming next. But if you missed it, it didn't really matter.

Well, it appears, from looking at the episode list on Wikipedia, that many of the '60s serials have some or all of their episodes missing. From the '70s on they seem to be complete. What was the reasoning for BBC losing these episodes?

After going through the available episodes on Netflix and Amazon Prime, they're almost identical in what they offer, but each has a few serials that the other doesn't have. There's definitely plenty to choose from.